this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 77 points 9 months ago

, I felt physically threatened just standing next to some of the products

Yes, that’s why they make them like that.

[–] [email protected] 76 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Road taxes should increase after certain dimensions and weights. Bonnet/hood height should be one.

Also, safety ratings should give equal weighting to the a vehicle's impact absorbtion and impact contribution. It's insane that something is considered safe solely because the occupant is protected.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Agreed. They should but there are these Cafe Standards that need to be dealt with. The cars have to be larger to be exempt because we're using wheel base to help determine fuel economy (it should be weight not wheelbase) These exemptions need to go away.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (13 children)

No shit? I forget where I saw the comparison but the length of the view that is blocked when being in a big ass truck is absolutely insane. There could be a gaggle of kids in front of you and you would never know until you hit them.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I mentioned this is another comment, but the crazy thing is that's the driver's view from M1 Abrams. Typically, in hatches open operation you'd either have a Crew Commander (and/or gunner) standing with their torso out of the turret for better visibility (and a second set of eyes), or a ground guide watching where you go.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Perhaps we should introduce a commander's hatch to help large pickup trucks safely navigate around neighborhoods.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

Was seriously considering a pickup as my next car until my partner pointed me to similar research a while back.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

They also seriously injure the people they do hit.

A car tends to hit low and send people onto the hood. A truck hits high (head and torso injuries) and knocks people to the ground where they get run over.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

It is honestly a major failure of US society (comedians I am looking at you) that people aren’t made fun of for driving these trucks so mercilessly that most people feel too ashamed to drive them.

I mean lots of other failures too, it shouldn’t be legal especially because there is zero reason for the high hood height from a vehicle function perspective. Unless of course you consider your vehicle being more efficient at killing pedestrians a reason to have them that way. I suppose we have entered that stage of things here in the US haven’t we.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (14 children)

Definitely. Builders and contractors in Europe drive vans; same as everyone else on the planet except the insecure yanks. If you pulled up to a site in one of these in any other country, I fuckin guarantee remarks will be made about your penis size and your penchant for the cock

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A truck has to have a nose that looks like a big slab of concrete to oncoming traffic. If it doesn't men will be forced to wear dresses, sing show tunes while sitting to pee. Thems the rules.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I sit to pee because I'm lazy. The dresses I wear while belting out ballads from Skykid shows are just to assert my dominance in the workplace.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 9 months ago

This according to a study published in the journal "No Shit Quarterly".

[–] [email protected] 47 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But they need their Emotional Support Vehicles!

[–] [email protected] 46 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

Refer to them as Gender Affirming Care, and watch the fragile pavement princesses lose their minds. Why do you drive the truck? Cuz you feel like it’s what a real man would drive? Congrats, that’s gender affirming care.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (2 children)

But i Like sITTinG uP hIGhEr

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (5 children)

This is a legitimate desire, I think. Being able to see more of what’s ahead is really luxurious and makes the whole driving experience feel safer (for drivers, anyway.) That said, now that every car on the street is a damned SUV, you’d need a damned semi truck to gain any real visibility advantage. Driving a “normal” car is like being the only dwarf in the NBA.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

And sitting higher doesn't necessitate a ridiculously high hood; look at any van ever.

!okay there are probably exceptions but you get my point!<

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago

Sitting up higher only makes you feel safer. A taller car (especially a hatchback on stilts like most crossovers are) makes you more likely to roll over, and less able to make defensive maneuvers.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

My 5 year old son loves Monster Trucks. We walked past one of these behemoth in stock form and he thought it was a monster truck. He wasn't far off.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Pedestrian infrastructure is not typically great either

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I just biked home and cars were in the bike lane for 90% of it. The plows pulled all the reflectors off the road and now drivers can't tell where the lanes are. Even though that entire lane is the dedicated right turn lane, they go in the bike lane. When we had snow a few days ago, pedestrians were in the road because the snow was plowed into the bike lane and sidewalk. Fuck 99.9% of US and Canadian infrastructure

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Try the all new Dodge Pedestrian Rammer.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ford F-150... the best selling child mulcher in the United States.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago

Trucks like this are like having a huge gut, where you haven't seen your ...uhhh feet for years.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago (4 children)

It's ok though, in about 30 years after 2 million children are dead, we'll make a law that limits the height of hoods, effective 5 years from then.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

We’ll also add exclusions for cars above a certain wheel well distance, which will only further incentivize carmakers to make bigger cars.

/s but not really, because this is literally how emissions regulations work. Emissions regulations are less strict as wheel well distance increases, so larger cars can be less efficient. Which is why car makers have heavily pushed for larger cars via marketing, astroturfing, etc, because it means regulatory compliance is easier.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (3 children)

We got rid of pop-up headlights because they were causing pedestrian deaths, but I don't think we'll do anything about these monstrosities because not only are they deadly, they're not fun. And our regulators want to prevent fun more than they want to prevent death.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I hadn't heard this before. How were pop-up headlights killing pedestrians?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A pedestrian’s body doesn’t slide up the hood obstruction-free. It gets mangled by a sconce.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The automotive industry must be jealous of firearms killing so many Americans and beating the annual death toll of vehicles, so they're upping their game to really push us into an increasingly dystopian and dangerous world. How dare you walk or ride a bike!?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I'm fairly confident the folks over at [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected], could have told anyone that.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Last time I was visiting family in Toronto, I noticed the speed limit on major streets had been lowered to 40 kph (25 mph). So the same as residential streets, in other words.

I asked my brother about this. He said that in spite of measures taken by the city to improve infrastructure, pedestrian and cyclist fatalities were on the way up due to the heavier and higher off the ground vehicles people drive today. The city admitted they did not expect people to drive that slow, but if they could start ticketing people doing over 60, that might save some lives? It's pretty sad.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They know. And those vehicle owners like to bully people and other cars with that.

Tax it hard like a luxury tax or vice tax.

Call it a Bully Tax so that we can look at them for what they are.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Pedestrians need to duck, not jump.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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